Page 148 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

Twenty-Three

Zian

I t sure would have been nice if the hotel had come with some kind of vehicle. I guess that would have been too much to ask.

Instead, we’re tramping along through the dense jungle vegetation again, slapping away bugs and stubbing our toes on stones hidden in the underbrush.

I push forward in the lead, because with my size and strength it’s easier for me to smash through the worst of the obstacles than it would be for any of the others. But that also means I don’t have the greatest sense of what’s going on behind me.

Even my supernaturally keen ears are focused more on any hint of danger from farther away than the murmured conversations and weary sighs of our group of shadowbloods.

So I have no idea that George’s teleportation talent is on the fritz until he jolts into view a step ahead of me and promptly trips over a tree root his foot slammed right into. He sprawls forward with a whoomph of breath and then a growled swear word that twelve-year-olds probably shouldn’t know.

I reach out to help him up. “You okay?”

He swipes his hand through his odd white hair and grimaces at me. “Yeah, fine. I didn’t mean to do that. It just starts happening when I want to be moving faster than I am, whether that’s actually a good idea or not.”

His whole face is shiny with sweat, his hair’s usual spikes drooping with dampness. His shirt clings to his skinny frame in patches.

I give him a quick onceover and decide I can pitch in a little more without it affecting my endurance all that much. “Here, why don’t you take a breather on me?”

I heft him up onto my shoulders in a piggyback ride, balancing him over the bulge of my pack. He’s so scrawny I barely feel the extra weight.

“You don’t have to do this,” he says as I tramp onward. “I can manage.”

I shrug—carefully so I don’t dislodge him. “I can too. Just keep your head low so I don’t accidentally brain you on any of the lower branches.”

George ends up resting his forearms gently on the top of my head, letting out a soft sigh that suggests he appreciates the rest more than he’s letting on. He might be the youngest kid here—it’s not surprising he’s tiring out the fastest.

His voice reaches me in a low mutter I don’t think he wants anyone else to hear. “Just for a few minutes. I’ll keep up, really.”

Something about his tone tugs at my gut. I wish I could see his face now to judge his expression, not that I’m the best at reading emotions even then.

“It’s no big deal for me,” I assure him. “I could keep going like this for hours.”

His head droops closer to mine. “You shouldn’t have to. It’s my fault we’re here at all.”

As I snap a few vines that crisscross our path, I frown. “Why would you say that?”

“We wouldn’t have crashed if I hadn’t hit the pilot so hard—because I made that stupid hop when I wasn’t even trying to. I’m always screwing up like that, but that time—that time I screwed things up for everyone.”

Oh. The thread of emotion I caught in his voice before must have tugged at me because it’s so uncomfortably familiar from my own life.

But with the recognition comes an unexpected sense of certainty. The words leave my lips without any hesitation.

“I think all of us have had issues getting control over our powers. The guardians never really taught us how to use them properly.”

Clancy’s done a little work with us, but only to serve his missions. I don’t know if he’s even bothered with this kid.

George lets out a soft huff. “Yeah, well, no one else made the helicopter crash.”

I consider his statement. “No, but a bunch of us could have. And some of us would be more likely to screw up in different ways that could be just as bad. As long as… as long as we’re trying to help rather than hurt people, I think we’ll end up doing more good than bad in the end.

The balance will be more right than wrong. ”

The kid is silent for several seconds. “Are you sure? I do try.”

“As sure as I can be about anything,” I say, and realize as I’m saying it how true that is.

Is this the first time I’ve thought of my own mistakes and not immediately started beating myself up over them?

I’m not happy about my fuck-ups. I wish I could take back the pain I’ve dealt out that wasn’t deserved.

But I didn’t ask for this power or the feral defensiveness that’s intertwined with it. I can put more good into the world than pain myself, can’t I?

I’m doing a little of that now by giving this kid a hand. And maybe not just by taking some weight off him in the literal sense.

A smile crosses my face, and my own steps feel even lighter. For a little while.

The direction we’ve been heading in, based on Jacob’s observations from the cockpit before the crash and Griffin’s emotional compass, is taking us toward a range of tall hills. Maybe even small mountains, from the looks of the green-draped peaks I’m getting glimpses of through the leaves.

The breaths of my companions become rougher as we veer upward again. How high are we going to have to climb this time?

We can’t count on stumbling on another abandoned hotel for shelter.

I skirt a clump of jutting boulders with the others trailing behind me and knock a path through a grove of sprouting saplings. George sways on my shoulders.

My calves are starting to prickle with exertion now. I’m going to have to put him down soon after all.

I glance up at the sun, just past its peak in the sky and searing even through the thin haze of clouds, and then back at the others. “Are we sure we definitely want to keep going this way? I haven’t gotten us off-course?”

Dominic peers up at the sun too. “I think this is still northwest.”

Griffin nods with that unnervingly vague expression of his. “It feels like we’re going the right way to me, if we want to reach the biggest city around.”

I guess we just keep trudging for as long as it takes, then.

I turn back to face the jungle, debating whether I can handle carrying George a while longer or should preserve my strength by setting him back on his feet now, and realize one of the other kids has sidled up next to me.

The mousy-haired girl looks to be about fourteen, but she’s been so quiet throughout the trek that I haven’t caught her name.

“I, um,” she mumbles, her head dipping shyly. “I think I might be able to tell where we could walk more easily.”

I’m not going to say no to that offer. I smile down at her in an attempt to offset my imposing size, in case that’s part of what’s making her nervous. “How’s that?”

Her hands twist together in front of her. “Well, I—my abilities have to do with the earth. Like, dirt and stuff. And I’ve been noticing I can kind of feel the ground around us. Where it’s steeper or… not so steep. Where there are more roots in it or less.”

“Less roots would mean less plants to push through,” Booker pipes up. “Sounds good to me.”

Jacob’s voice reaches me with an impatient note. “We don’t want to get too far off track. An easy path could still take longer if we wander off the wrong way.”

Before my eyes, the girl deflates. The sight gnaws at me just like George’s admission of guilt did.

She’s trying to do something good for us too. Jake’s just a natural skeptic.

“Do you think you could tell how far we’d need to go to get to the better routes?” I ask her. “Make sure it’s not too long a diversion?”

She peeks up at me, biting her lip. “Yeah. I can’t feel things very far away anyway. There’s a spot that’s pretty close that we could try.”

“We might as well give it a shot,” Andreas says in his easygoing way. “Especially with how much more walking we’ve got ahead of us.”

A murmur of general agreement passes through the group. I give the girl’s shoulder the gentlest pat I can manage.

“Why don’t you take the lead for a bit? Sounds like you know where you’re going better than I do.”

The swift grin she flashes at me makes the gamble worthwhile all on its own. She darts a little ahead of me, picking her way across the terrain so deftly my confidence in this plan has grown before I’m even walking again.

I check behind me to make sure everyone’s on board. My gaze collides with Riva’s, and she shoots me a wider smile that makes my pulse wobble in the best possible way.

She’s been championing these kids from the moment she found out they existed. But she doesn’t have to be alone in it.

She doesn’t have to be alone any way at all. A flicker of heat washes through my veins at the memories from last night—her taste on my lips, her face flushed with bliss.

I played a part in giving her that pleasure, and I didn’t have to push myself too close to my limits to do it. Even if that’s the best I can ever offer her, it’s more than I thought I could.

The shy girl guides us onto a narrow but trampled path that I’d bet animals use to traverse the jungle more quickly. My strides lengthen as we set off along it, the strain easing back.

“This is great,” I tell her, and she smiles a little longer than before.

“I feel like it’s going to take us on a lower path between the higher hills,” she says. “So we won’t have to go right up any of them.”

Nadia lets out a whoop of approval. “I’m all for that. No pain, no gain is definitely not my philosophy.”

At our faster pace, we find ourselves surrounded by the looming peaks within a couple of hours. The ground keeps veering upward with plenty of hillside still to cover, but my spirits are high.

Of course, the others still need their breaks even with an easier hike. Andreas calls for a pit stop when we come up on a couple of fallen trees that can act as benches, and he and Riva pass around the drinks and snacks while Dominic checks everyone for possible injuries.

Griffin scoops his cat out of his pack and scratches her shoulders while she cuddles on his lap. As I watch him, wondering what’s going on in that head of his now, he focuses on the perky girl from the older kids.